Ben McBride: A “Book Club Widower’s” Loyal Friend

04 Apr Ben McBride: A “Book Club Widower’s” Loyal Friend

An excerpt from the upcoming Amazon Kindle novel The Book Club Widowers, featuring Ben McBride, a good friend to the men whose wives have vanished:

“Hey, you’re married, right?” asked Julio as he tended the bar. “I never see you bring your wife in here.”

Ben chuckled. “She thinks I spend too much time here already. I don’t know that she’d let me drag her out here.”

“You have kids?”

“One. A daughter, Madison. We call her ‘Maddie.’ She’s two.”

Julio smiled. “Sounds pretty precious. And a handful?”

“A precious handful.”

“Good for you, man. I hope to become a dad someday.”

“It changes your life,” Ben said. “You got a girlfriend?”

Julio smiled, almost shyly, which was endearing to see on the face of a guy who radiated confidence. “Actually, I’ve been seeing this girl I met in here for a couple of months now,” he said. “Her name’s Susannah.”

“Great. You have a picture of her?”

Julio pulled his iPhone out of his pocket, scrolled through some pictures, and handed the device to Ben. Ben smiled at a close-up shot of Julio with a pretty dark-haired woman with red-highlights, both of them beaming.

“Pretty,” Ben said, then added, “She’s not bad-looking, either.”

“You’re a mess,” Julio chuckled.

“Yeah. Sometimes I am.”

“Not literally, of course, Mr. McBride,” Julio said.

“That makes me sound old. I’m not ready to be old yet. Getting more gray hair each day, though, so harder to hide the age.”